Editors: Bekah Caden and Annie LaHue

Released: 24 February 2019

Content warning: trauma, implied assault

Artemis looks confused and asks, what about her brother. Persephone stops and curls her fists, drops of sweat trickling down her face. She couldn’t speak; there’s a lump on her throat and the words don’t come out. All she could think is: “I don’t want to hurt her.”

Realizing what she let slip, Persephone hastily makes way out the door, saying that she can’t be late for work. She tells Artemis they can talk about it later.

Persephone wrapped in Hermes’ arms as they fly into the Underworld. Hades sees them from his window and feels a pang of jealousy, though he placates himself and feels jealous, despite thinking he has no right to feel that way.

Persephone eyes an eel interestedly through a massive tank. She hears a voice call her name from the stairs. She smiles at the sight of Hecate and they both hug each other. They both exchanged affectionate greetings, until Persephone looks around her and asks where Hades was since she thought she was meeting him. Hecate says that Hades is caught up in a meeting and so she’s stuck “with this old gal.” Hecate takes her by the arm and tells her she’ll show her what Persephone will be doing.

She welcomes her to the library, where rows of shades seat upon desks, writing on long, red scrolls.

Hecate explains that the shades record the lives of every single mortal as it happens. She shows Persephone a large red scroll on her hand and says that each scroll represents one mortal life. She further explains that when a mortal is born, a new scroll is started. This stops Persephone. She asks what happens when they die. Hecate replies that the scrolls need to be filed away in a library. The panel shows a shade filing a scroll in a cabinet filled with thousands of red scrolls.

“Some mortals are very good and some mortals are very, very bad. It goes without saying, death can be complicated.”

Hecate

Hecate puts her arm around Persephone’s shoulders and tells her that’s where she comes in. Unsure, Persephone asks, “Me?” Hecate tells her that most mortals live unremarkable lives, and so when they become shades they can be retrained for basic labor roles for the Underworld. Persephone follows her as she walks.

Hecate tells her that “death can be complicated” but everyone deserves a fair trial. She tells Persephone as she tells her she’ll be assisting Thanatos and Hermes with gathering information for certain trials. Hecate expresses confidence in her abilities, before excusing herself to take a phone call.

As Persephone walks around, she sees Hades and happily calls him. The pink flower petals in her hair fall off and new blue ones start to sprout, glistening against the dark blue wall.

Hades greets her impassively. Persephone playfully pokes his chest and asks him how he is. Hades catches her hands and tells her he’s busy. Persephone reaches for something and tells Hades she’s glad to run into him because she made him something. She explains she doesn’t have money to buy him something fancy, but she wants to give him something.

She shows him a container and tells him it’s baklava. Hades sadly looks at her and apologizes. He says he can’t accept her gift. Persephone looks confused. She tries to give it to him. Hades’ eyes widened and reluctantly explains that he can’t accept gifts from employees as it’s not a good look.

Just then, the elevator doors open with a bing and someone steps out into the floor in high-heeled shoes. Minthe greets Hades, “Hey!” and reaches for his tie and pulls him down to meet her lips. As Persephone watches the scene unfold before her, Hades sadly looks at her.

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